This is not a great time to be Hrithik Roshan. Or his PR representative, for that matter.

The 42-year-old actor, who has recently been left red-faced after his public battle with rumoured ex-girlfriend Kangana Ranaut resulted in some negative press and a public apology, allegedly attempted to bully a news photographer for taking his pictures. He then proceeded to illegally confiscate his camera for nearly 24 hours.

On Tuesday, Mumbai Mirror reported the ordeal that their staff photographer Raju Shelar was put through last Sunday after he attempted to click candid pictures of the star during an outdoor shoot in China Creek, Thane. Roshan was shooting for the climax of Ashutosh Gowariker's upcoming period film Mohenjo Daro when one of his security guards spotted Shelar, who was attempting to take exclusive pictures of the star in character.

According to the report, Shelar's camera was confiscated and handed over to Roshan, who snidely remarked that Shelar "should be given a glass of water" for his efforts. He then disappeared into his vanity van with the camera, emerging several hours later while the photographer was told to wait until the end of the shoot.

Roshan, having showered and changed, reprimanded Shelar for 'outing' his look from the film — even though pictures of the same have been published before by several outlets. Despite Shelar protesting that he was merely doing his job as a professional news photographer — with a decade of work experience under his belt — the star refused to give him back his camera, asking him instead to pick it up from his Juhu residence the next morning.

On Monday, Shelar turned up at the given time, 11 am, but Roshan was asleep then. He only emerged around 4 pm — explaining that he'd been busy in "back-to-back meetings" — and demanded an apology from the tabloid in return for the camera. MM responded by saying that the paper would file a police complaint if the camera wasn't returned immediately. Roshan responded by saying that he'll "think about it".

However, this act of bravado didn't last too long. Moments later, after the newspaper placed a call to Thane's police commissioner and Shelar left, Roshan backed down and returned his camera. He'd seized one of its memory cards, which had a few pictures, but neglected to confiscate the other, which had many more. In its report, MM gleefully published one of Shelar's pictures from that day, saying: "Next time, he should perhaps wear the Krrish mask!"